Plans for a giant new £2bn theme park on the edge of London to rival Disneyland Paris have been halted - by a colony of rare spiders.

Developers say the Paramount scheme will be the third biggest theme park in the world and twice the size of the Olympic Park.

It is due to create 27,000 jobs and was set to be completed by 2019. But an environmental audit of the 872-acre brownfield site in the Swanscombe Peninsula in Kent has found it is home to distinguished jumping spiders.